DJI's new Air 3S drone has been difficult to come by in America thanks to a reported block put on a shipment from DJI by US customs. but some Reddit users are reporting they're receiving their drones.
If you search for the officially released Air 3S at Amazon.com – the USA site, anyway – you won't find the latest drone, even though it's now available in the rest of the world, so there is every reason to take the reports of the customs issues seriously.
According to at least one Reddit user, however, the drones are arriving when ordered directly from DJI and, indeed, if you check the Air 3S page on the DJI store you'll be offered the drone without any possible problems.
What seems to be happening is that a single shipment on the way to retailers has been stopped by customs, but DJI are shipping directly to customers
One Reddit user, davidfrz, goes on to explain: "People worry about everything these days and make up scandals that don't exist online, shipping/Customs, continued innovation of video compression technology and bitrates yada yada. Ignore that stuff or you'll develop anxiety issues. :-)"
We're confident the scandal isn't made up – it seems unlikely DJI would want to post about a "misunderstanding" by the US customs department on their official blog otherwise, and unheard of that Amazon would miss the opportunity to sell a new DJI drone straight after launch.
Comment from r/dji
Reassuringly for potential customers thinking of using the DJI store, davidfrz also notes in the comments that he wasn't charged a customs fee and that his drone cleared customs in hours.
It's not all plain sailing though – user davidarmenphoto has suffered delays even if he has now been told it will arrive today by DHL. We'll keep monitoring this!
Finally, another Reddit poster, sarhoshamiral, notes Best Buy Canada already have stock too, so if you live near enough to cross the border that's an option.
Failing that, it might be time to check our best non-DJI drones guide.
